Sleiman contacted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad about the deployment and was told the moves are a continuation of "steps by the Syrian authorities to counter every kind of smuggling," the presidential statement said.

The statement was issued in the wake of a cabinet meeting on Friday night which lasted more than five hours.

Prime Minister Fuad Siniora had during the meeting emphasised "the need for security and military coordination" between the two countries on the issue of smuggling, the official news National News Agency said.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, speaking in Cairo during a visit, said on Saturday that the troops "are not threatening anyone".

In September, the Lebanese army revealed the deployment of 10,000 Syrian special forces in the Abbudiya region along the border between Lebanon and Syria.

The move followed a Damascus summit between Assad and Sleiman in August at which it was agreed that the neighbours would take formal steps to demarcate their borders arising from a decision to normalise their relations for the first time after decades of tension.

Members of the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority in Lebanon say Syria could be setting the stage to return its forces to their country.

The US State Department said on Monday that Washington was concerned about the Syrian troop movements and warned Damascus against interference in Lebanon.

Damascus on Wednesday defended its troop deployments as being necessary to combat smuggling and infiltration by saboteurs.

Syria, a longtime powerbroker in its smaller neighbour, withdrew its troops from Lebanon in 2005 after a deployment of three decades.

Kouchner said: "We observed that Syrian forces were massed on the Lebanese border. This worried our Lebanese friends," he said.

"We made inquiries and for the moment the troops haven't moved," the French foreign minister said. "We don't know why this movement has taken place but they are not threatening anyone."

© 2008 Agence France-Presse